Anonymous Threatens To Expose Data From An Australian ISP

Hackers representing the interests of international hacktivist group Anonymous have this week defaced several Queensland government websites and are threatening to expose the user data of an Australian ISP to protest the proposed data retention scheme in Australia.

The hacks, first spotted by News.com.au, saw the group known as Operation Australia deface 10 Queensland websites to protest the state government allegedly tracking its citizens.

The Anonymous members behind Operation Australia are deeply troubled by the state of the National Security inquiry which plans to discuss implementing mandatory retention of user data by ISPs for two years under a plan proposed by Attorney-General Nicola Roxon.

A spokesperson for the group who asked to remain anonymous, told us this afternoon that it will continue to hack and deface government sites as a form of protest "while the gov[ernment] continues to attack its citizens [and] treat us like criminals".

The group also made threats against an unnamed local ISP, saying that if the National Security Inquiry continued it would leak data to show how unsecured the information of citizens would be if it had to be retained at a service provider level.

The spokesperson assured us though that user data would stay safe.

"we do not plan to release ppls details altho stay tuned for more leaks, maybe from n isp to show how unsafe our data is [sic]," the spokesperson said.

The hackers haven't as yet made a submission to the National Security Inquiry but said they'd consider a submission made on behalf of Anonymous.

Along with the data retention scheme, the hacktivists denounced the TPPA, saying that it would "allow some pretty nasty stuff for AU citizens". They wouldn't rule out protesting that, either.

As far as Operation Australia is concerned, the spokesperson did say that some members are geographically based in Australia but that they remain citizens of the internet at all times.

Below is the text that the group posted onto the Queensland government websites, taken from Cyber War News:

T h e J o k e N e t w o r k – Continuing the lulz since 2o12 :.

: :

: Welcome, Australian boys and girls. :

: You may have heard about the proposed National Security changes. :

: :

: You probably don’t like them. We certainly don’t. :

: :

: Do you like the idea of surrendering your passwords or people spying on your :

: Facebook or Twitter accounts? :

: :

: Nope, we didn’t think you did. :

: :

: Your government seems to think that everyone in Australia is a terrorist. :

Stand up for our rights by breaching them? They are going to protest the government storing information about people by releasing the same information for criminals and scammers to use. Please justify your logic.

Public embarrassment is journalist catnip. While these attacks (and certainly the 1337speak statements) may appear petty and juvenile, they attract media attention and thus raise awareness of an insidious, impractical abuse of power by our elected leaders.

As to your 'information for criminals and scammers', if you had read the article you would see that they have advised they will not be releasing user data. That said, if they can get this data then 'criminals and scammers' can likely do so as well, and I can assure you *they* wouldn't be trying to raise awareness of exploitable security lapses.

"Hackers representing the interests of international hacktivist group Anonymous have this week defaced several Queensland government websites and are threatening to expose the user data of an Australian ISP to protest the proposed data retention scheme in Australia" First Paragraph !
No protesting is not illegal ....hacking an ISP and releasing their user data is...... O_o

The second I read that, my respect for the author dropped a good 10-20%. "Ironic" is yet another abused word thanks to poor education.
It would be ironic if the government spokesperson wanted to remain anonymous, not the person fighting for anonymity!

Gah. Never even meant for it to go up with that word in there anyway! I have a habit of writing little jokes to myself in drafts and then editing the sentences around the jokes before removing the note. Hope you enjoyed this look behind the curtain.

I reckon it will be a lesser known provider, both because if it were bigger Anonymous would already be claiming it, and if it were a bigger company then they would (should) already be in damage control before it's leaked to the press.

These kiddies and the kiddy who wrote this article need to learn the different levels of government in this country. Federal LABOR want to bring in this law, yet State LNB site was hacked. All this action did was prove how clueless this bunch of dipsh&t tweeners are.

I raised this, in not so strong terms. Basically they said the QLD hacks were essentially a warning and a retaliation for the state allegedly tracking citizens. They didn't rule out escalating the attacks to Federal level.

And I'm going to trust a group of teenagers to keep my data secured? What background and police checks are done before a person is allowed to join annon? Can you or any one in annon garantee that my data is safe, that no spammers or identity thiefs will have access to my data? And if my data does get missused and my identity does get stolen, who can I sue? Does annon have lawyers that I can send my lawyers to?

I think you should research what Anonymous is. It's your ISP which is responsible for keeping your data safe, and since not doing so Anonymous has obtained some people's said details. What do spammers have to do with it? You can sue your ISP for leaking information if it comes down to that.

Obviously the law would be refering to citizens who use the internet for criminal activity . One thing that I've always been wary of though. Is governments who want to much control. And people who don't any control at all. Booth viewpoints are sus, at their extremes.

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